Bombers can’t let Jones and his ‘crazy defence’ dictate the game

REGINA – For the Winnipeg Blue Bombers to break out of the funk they’ve been in for the last few weeks, their offence is going to have to find a way to break through a very stingy Saskatchewan Roughriders defence.

It won’t be easy but there’s simply no choice.

To beat the Riders, you have to out-think defensive guru and head coach Chris Jones and you have to execute with almost flawless precision when trying to move the ball.

No team ever plays completely mistake-free football, but the Bombers are going to have to come close.

“Just stick to what we do,” Bombers running back Andrew Harris said of the key to success in beating a Jones coached team. “Don’t try to do too much. A lot of teams struggle when they try to do too much against this defence. You’ve got to stick to what you’re good at and dictate the game. Don’t let his defence, and all the crazy things that he does, dictate the game.”

Those crazy things that Jones does include all kinds of different blitz packages, a lot of different looks that are the result of moving players around on the line, in the linebacking core and even in the secondary. The Riders bring pressures from the defensive backs, rotate players in and out of the game regularly and generally do anything they can to confuse the offence.

“You can’t get lost in all the smoke and mirrors,” Harris said. “At the end of the day, there has to be a guy that plays in the WIL position, a guy in the SAM position, a guy in the MACK position and three or four or five guys on the line that you’ve got to block. At the end of the day, it’s really simple and you can’t get lost in all the movement and all the different things that they try to do.”

It’s not exactly an ideal situation for the Bombers – and their struggling quarterback Matt Nichols – to find their return to form.

The Riders defence, which features CFL sack leader Charleston Hughes and might be the fastest unit in the league – has been so strong of late, even Riders quarterback Zach Collaros hates going against them.

“Day 2s around here are never fun for the quarterback,” Collaros said. “You get to see what our defence is going to do for that week and you don’t have a lot of time to figure it out. It has definitely helped the quarterbacks here moving forward, just playing against that speed in practice and in the games it’s really helpful to have a great defence like that.

“I’ve played against Coach Jones’s defences for a long time and they’re difficult to figure out. They’re always a group of athletic guys and you have to really be on your game to beat them. I’m just happy they’re on my side.”

Nichols has no such luxury.

Partly due to the ineffectiveness of the offence, the Bombers defence has been subpar in the last two weeks, giving up a total of 1,016 yards.

The defensive unit needs to improve, but for Harris, it all starts with him and his offensive teammates.

“We need to be better on first down, we need to control the line of scrimmage better, the time of possession,” Harris said. “There’s a lot of things we need to be better at. It’s not redemption, it’s not revenge, it’s not anything. It’s just we need to be better as professionals, as teammates and for our club.”

The Bombers have two straight games to fall to 5-5 on the season. The last time they lost three games in a row was in 2015.

Though it appears things are falling apart a bit with this team, Nichols hasn’t seen any drop off in the team’s morale.

“Absolutely not,” he said. “This is a super confident group. I think we’ve got a lot of veteran leaders on this team that would never allow any lull or anything like that. “Everyone is putting in the hours and everyone is fired up to play in this one. I fully look forward to the team coming out and playing well tomorrow and hopefully making those plays that we need to seal off the game.”

ALL ABOUT THE ‘W’

REGINA – Andrew Harris grew up watching the Labour Day Classic and his love for the annual game hasn’t changed one bit since he started playing in them two years ago.

The Winnipeg Blue Bombers running back is a fan of the hype and the rivalry between his team and the Saskatchewan Roughriders, though he wants nothing to do with those two things on gameday.

“All the rivalry and the hype leading up to this week have to be set aside,” Harris said.

“It’s a lot of fun to be a part of. It’s definitely something I watched when I was a young boy growing up. The biggest thing though is it’s two Western opponents that are closely ranked up in the standings. Getting a win tomorrow would be huge for us.”

Either way, Harris is going to soak up the atmosphere of a sold-out Mosaic Stadium that will have its fair share of fans wearing Blue and Gold.

“It’s going to be absolutely mayhem in here,” he said. “I’ve got a bunch of friends coming in from Winnipeg as well and a lot of Bombers fans will be here. Just the blend of the rivalry and the crowd noise and the excitement and the fact that it’s well into the season now, it’s definitely something that we’re looking forward to.”

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